Arthur Ashe Quotes & Sayings

My potential is more than can be expressed within the bounds of my race or ethnic identity. — Arthur Ashe

Having grown up in a segregated environment in the south I know what it's like to be stepped on, I know what it's like also to see some black hero do well in the face of adversity. — Arthur Ashe

Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can. — Arthur Ashe

In America you're conditioned to regard everything as a contest. You have to make the Ten Best Dressed List, win this, win that. It drives me nuts sometimes. Who cares, for Christ's sake? — Arthur Ashe

There is a terrific apprehension among some people that blacks will take over the sport ... It will create problems because their behavior, speech and dress is just a completely different culture. — Arthur Ashe

If you're paid before you walk on the court, what's the point in playing as if your life depended on it? — Arthur Ashe

You've got to make a lot of sacrifices and spend a lot of time if you really want to achieve with this sport, or in any sport, or in anything truly worthwhile. — Arthur Ashe

I spent many, many hours in ... libraries. Libraries became courts of last resort, as it were. — Arthur Ashe

True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. — Arthur Ashe

We must believe in the power of education. We must respect just laws. We must love ourselves, our old and or young, our women as well as our men. — Arthur Ashe

I strongly believe the black culture spends too much time, energy and effort raising, praising, and teasing our black children about the dubious glories of professional sports. — Arthur Ashe

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life. — Arthur Ashe

If I don't ask "Why me?" after my victories, I cannot ask "Why me?" after my setbacks and disasters. — Arthur Ashe

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. — Arthur Ashe

When bright young minds can't afford college, America pays the price. — Arthur Ashe

The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight. — Arthur Ashe

I have always drawn strength from being close to home. — Arthur Ashe

Wherever I am when you feel sick at heart and weary of life, or when you stumble and fall and don't know if you can get up again, think of me. I will be watching and smiling and cheering on. — Arthur Ashe

It doesn't have to glitter to be gold. — Arthur Ashe

Throughout my formal education I spent many, many hours in public and school libraries. Libraries became courts of last resort, as it were. The current definitive answer to almost any question can be found within the four walls of most libraries. — Arthur Ashe

Later, I discovered there was a lot of work to being good in tennis. — Arthur Ashe

I don't want to be remembered for my tennis accomplishments. — Arthur Ashe

You come to realize that life is short, and you have to step up. Don't feel sorry for me. Much is expected of those who are strong. — Arthur Ashe

Every time you win, it diminishes the fear a little bit. You never really cancel the fear of losing; you keep challenging it. — Arthur Ashe

It is not just the more talented player who wins. Some players may try a little harder. — Arthur Ashe

The best way to judge a life is to ask yourself, Did I make the best use of the time I had? — Arthur Ashe

Someone once told me that God figured that I was a pretty good juggler. I could keep a lot of balls in the air at one time. So He said, "Let's see if he can juggle another one." — Arthur Ashe

I take the good with the bad, and I try to face them both with as much calm and dignity as I can muster. — Arthur Ashe

The world over - 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, when I was holding a cup I never asked GOD 'Why me?'. And today in pain I should not be asking GOD 'Why me?' — Arthur Ashe

You really are never playing an opponent. You are playing yourself. — Arthur Ashe

This is my career highlight. Getting to the fourth round in the U.S. Open in my first year in the U.S. Open and first year on the tour. — Arthur Ashe

Clothes and manners do not make the ... — Arthur Ashe

When we were together, I loved you deeply and you gave me so much happiness I can never repay you. — Arthur Ashe

Drummed into me, above all, by my dad, by the whole family, was that without your good name, you would be nothing. — Arthur Ashe

I know I could never forgive myself if I elected to live without humane purpose, without trying to help the poor and unfortunate, without recognizing that perhaps the purest joy in life comes with trying to help others. — Arthur Ashe

Fear isn't an excuse to come to a standstill. It's the impetus to step up and strike. — Arthur Ashe

I'm learning to use others' weaknesses. I don't hammer a man's soft spot constantly, because he may strengthen it. I just save it as a trump up my sleeve for moments when I really need a point. — Arthur Ashe

Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time. — Arthur Ashe

I guess I started too early because I just thought it was something fun to do. — Arthur Ashe

Do not feel sorry for me if I am gone. — Arthur Ashe

We blacks look for leadership in men and women of such youth and inexperience, as well as poverty of education and character, that it is no wonder that we sometimes seem rudderless ... We see basketball players and pop singers as possible role models, when nothing could be further, in most cases, from their capacities. — Arthur Ashe

Clothes and manners do not make the man; but when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance. — Arthur Ashe

You've got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning or losing. — Arthur Ashe

I have tried to keep on with my striving because this is the only hope I have of ever achieving anything worthwhile and lasting. — Arthur Ashe

If I didn't play tennis I probably would have to see a psychiatrist. — Arthur Ashe

I have become convinced that we blacks spend too much time on the playing field and too little time in libraries. — Arthur Ashe

I keep sailing on in this middle passage. I am sailing into the wind and the dark. But I am doing my best to keep my boat steady and my sails full. — Arthur Ashe

My humanity, in common with all of God's children, gives the greatest flight to my full range of my possibilities. — Arthur Ashe

I would like to flood South Africa with black personages of all sorts of persuasions: writers, educators, businessmen, you name it. If you are black and have any clout at all, I would like to see you go to South Africa and look for yourself and come back and try to use the tools that you have at your command to try and help the brothers down there. — Arthur Ashe

I may not be walking with you all the way, or even much of the way, as I walk with you now. — Arthur Ashe

Seven out of 10 black faces you see on television are athletes. The black athlete carries the image of the black community. He carries the cross, in a way, until blacks make inroads in other dimensions. — Arthur Ashe

It's an abnormal world I live in. I don't belong anywhere. It's like I'm floating down the middle. I'm never quite sure where I am. — Arthur Ashe

We must reach out our hand in friendship and dignity both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy. — Arthur Ashe

Life is like a tennis game. You can't win without serving. — Arthur Ashe

One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation. — Arthur Ashe

I don't care who you are, you're going to choke in certain matches. You get to a point where your legs don't move and you can't take a deep breath. You start to hit the ball about a yard wide, instead of inches. — Arthur Ashe

With what we give, we make a life. — Arthur Ashe

If I were to say, "God, why me?" about the bad things, then I should have said, "God, why me?" about the good things that happened in my life. — Arthur Ashe

Always have the situation under control, even if losing. Never betray an inward sense of defeat. — Arthur Ashe

There's no better stage than the U.S. Open for me — Arthur Ashe

If one's reputation is a possession, then of all my possessions, my reputation means most to me. — Arthur Ashe

Let me put it this way: I think Republicans tend to keep the ball in play, Democrats go for broke. — Arthur Ashe

There were times when I asked myself whether I was being principled or simply a coward ... I was wrapped in the cocoon of tennis early in life, mainly by blacks like my most powerful mentor, Dr. Robert Walter Johnson of Lynchburg, Virginia. They insisted that I be unfailingly polite on the court, unfalteringly calm and detached, so that whites could never accuse me of meanness. I learned well. I look at photographs of the skinny, frail, little black boy that I was in the early 1950s, and I see that I was my tennis racquet and my tennis racquet was me. It was my rod and my staff. — Arthur Ashe

There is a syndrome in sports called 'paralysis by analysis.' — Arthur Ashe

I accepted the face that as much as I want to lead others, and love to be around other people, in some essential way, I am something of a loner. — Arthur Ashe

A couple of times a day I sit quietly and visualize my body fighting the AIDS virus. It's the same as me sitting and seeing myself hit the perfect serve. I did that often when I was an athlete. — Arthur Ashe

You learn about equality in history and civics, but you find out life is not really like that. — Arthur Ashe

A wise person decides slowly but abides by these decisions. — Arthur Ashe